As a young teacher 25 years ago, Larkin Beaman almost bought a hotel room that was converted into a studio condo in downtown Telluride. It was $80,000 for 371 square feet. 

Last month the ninth-grade teacher at Telluride High School toured the same unit. It was going for $445,000 and sold in a blink. 

“I guess I just didn’t have the vision back then,” she said as she prepared for a day of remote teaching from her classroom in a town where she has been searching for a small home. “I just want a tiny studio. I’m just waiting, but there is not anything below $500,000.”

Beaman’s story is a timeworn tale in ski towns, where sky-high real estate prices have dogged teachers, doctors, firemen and other essential local workers for decades. But this summer, a surge of largely urban newcomers fleeing big-city problems during the pandemic is hastening the displacement of locals. 

Not only are the newcomers buying everything — setting records for both prices and emaciated inventories of for-sale homes — but they are also renting resort-area homes at a breakneck clip. 

Read more via The Colorado Sun.

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